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Hours:

Volunteer Night: Mondays and Wednesdays 6pm-9pm

Open Shop: Saturdays 1pm-4pm

Board Meeting: 3rd Tuesday 7pm-8:30pm

Third Hand is a bicycle cooperative in Columbus, Ohio: a volunteer run, non-profit, community oriented workshop where you can come to learn about bikes, fix your bike, obtain a bike, meet fellow cyclists, volunteer, donate unwanted stuff, and have fun. We offer bikes and parts at a low cost and help you learn to fix bikes!

Our mission is to promote cycling as safe, enjoyable, and environmentally responsible transportation by providing community members with the facilities and tools, as well as the skills and knowledge to help make cycling an essential part of their everyday lives.

Services:

Anytime we’re open:

We sell used bikes, used parts, and a basic stock of new parts

We accept any bicycle related donation

Members can volunteer to fix bikes, organize the shop, etc.

Workstations and tools are available for use by the public, first come first served.

Volunteers are available to help you work on your bike

Facilities:

The Third Hand Bicycle Co-op facilities are well equipped for complete bicycle maintenance. We offer 12 fully equipped workstations as well as some specialized tools.

We have hundreds of bikes for sale in various conditions, including a modest selection of good quality complete bicycles. We have an extensive and well-organized selection of used parts and accessories.

Guidelines:

Each youth under 18 must be accompanied at all times by an adult while in the workshop area.

No personal storage – your stuff leaves with you or it will get sold!

No bags upstairs.

History:

The Third Hand Bicycle Cooperative came together in the early 2000s, but went into hibernation a year later when its leadership disbanded. The sight of its remnants – abandoned bikes, tools, parts, and literature – inspired another small group of people to re- form the co-op.

Columbus needed a place where people could use tools freely, learn the mechanics of repair, spend sunny afternoons organizing dusk rides, or volunteer to repair bicycles. In October 2005, several people spread the word that someone donated their garage for such a purpose. That same few would embark on the challenge of re-organizing the co-op and making it sustainable.

The sight of so many people coming out to help with this project, whether wrenching or organizing, was astonishing. THBC reached hundreds of people, prompting a move in the fall of 2007 to a rented storefront on East 5th Ave, a couple blocks off High Street.

Over the years, the need for a community bike shop that offered low cost parts and bikes, advice from skilled mechanics, and a full toolshop was evident from the long lines at Open Shop sessions from spring through fall. Because of a need for more space and a more permanent presence, THBC purchased and set up operations at 979 E 5th Avenue in the Milo Grogan neighborhood in September 2012.

THBC continues to pursue its goal of education and activism that will endure for years to come, serving the local neighborhood and the wider Columbus community.